The L.M. Montgomery Reader

The L.M. Montgomery Reader
Author: Benjamin Lefebvre
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 465
Release: 2013-01-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1442644915

The L.M. Montgomery Reader assembles significant rediscovered primary material on one of Canada's most enduringly popular authors throughout her high-profile career and after her death. Each of its three volumes gathers pieces published all over the world to set the stage for a much-needed reassessment of Montgomery's literary reputation. Much of the material is freshly unearthed from archives and digital collections and has never before been published in book form. The selections appearing in this first volume focus on Montgomery's role as a public celebrity and author of the resoundingly successful Anne of Green Gables (1908). They give a strong impression of her as a writer and cultural critic as she discusses a range of topics with wit, wisdom, and humour, including the natural landscape of Prince Edward Island, her wide readership, anxieties about modernity, and the continued relevance of “old ideals.” These essays and interviews, joined by a number of additional pieces that discuss her work's literary and cultural value in relation to an emerging canon of Canadian literature, make up nearly one hundred selections in all. Each volume is accompanied by an extensive introduction and detailed commentary by leading Montgomery scholar Benjamin Lefebvre that trace the interplay between the author and the critic, as well as between the private and the public Montgomery. This volume – and the Reader as a whole – adds tremendously to our understanding and appreciation of Montgomery's legacy as a Canadian author and as a literary celebrity both during and beyond her lifetime.

Anthologizing Canadian Literature

Anthologizing Canadian Literature
Author: Robert Lecker
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
Total Pages: 535
Release: 2015-11-02
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1771121106

The first collection of critical essays devoted to the study of English-Canadian literary anthologies brings together the work of thirteen prominent critics to investigate anthology formation in Canada and answer these key questions: Why are there so many literary anthologies in Canada, and how can we trace their history? What role have anthologies played in the formation of Canadian literary taste? How have anthologies influenced the training of students from generation to generation? What literary values do the editors of various anthologies tend to support, and how do these values affect canon formation in Canada? How have different genres fared in the creation of literary anthologies? How do Canadian anthologies transmit ideas about gender, region, ideology, and nation? Specific essays focus on anthologies as national metaphors, the controversies surrounding early literary collections, representations of First Nations peoples in anthologies, and the ways in which various editors have understood exploration narratives. In addition, the collection examines the representation of women in Canadian anthologies, the use of anthologies as teaching tools, and the creation of some very odd Canadian anthologies along the way.

Authors and Audiences

Authors and Audiences
Author: Clarence Karr
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2000
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0773520767

From the 1890s through the 1920s, the best-selling fiction of Ralph Connor, Robert Stead, Nellie McClung, Lucy Maud Montgomery, and Arthur Stringer was internationally recognized. In this intriguing cultural history of the conception, production, and reception of popular fiction, Clarence Karr challenges the common assumption that best sellers are a conservative cultural influence, reflecting and promoting traditional values. By focusing on a society and its cultural leaders at a period when they were coming to grips with modernity, Karr provides a new perspective on popular culture and the interaction between readers and popular authors.

Recalling Recitation in the Americas

Recalling Recitation in the Americas
Author: Janet Neigh
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2017-01-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1487501838

Spoken word is one of the most popular styles of poetry in North America. While its prevalence is often attributed to the form's strong ties to oral culture, Recalling Recitation in the Americas reveals how poetry memorization and recitation curricula, shaped by British Imperial policy, influenced contemporary performance practices. During the early twentieth century, educators frequently used the recitation of canonical poems to instill "proper" speech and behaviour in classrooms in Canada, the Caribbean, and the United States. Janet Neigh critically analyses three celebrated performance poets - E. Pauline Johnson-Tekahionwake (1861-1913), Langston Hughes (1902-1967), and Louise Bennett (1919-2006) - who refashioned recitation to cultivate linguistic diversity and to resist its disciplinary force. Through an examination of the dialogues among their poetic projects, Neigh illuminates how their complicated legacies as national icons obscure their similar approaches to resisting Anglicization. Recalling Recitation in the Americas focuses on the unexplored relationship between education history and literary form and establishes the far-reaching effects of poetry memorization and recitation on the development of modern performance poetry in North America.